Issue 56, 12 April 1986.
Written by: Bob Budiansky
Art by: Don Perlin (pencils), Keith Williams (inks)
Colours by: Nel Yomtov
Letters by: Janice Chiang
Cover art: John Stokes, maybe?
Reprinted from US issue 15.
Plot: Triple-I and Donny Finkelberg mount another broadcast featuring Megatron's dormant form to get the 'Robot-Master' point across. GB Blackrock is appalled that it's still going ahead, and maintains his refusal to lump the Autobots in with the Decepticons. He points out the said Decepticons aren't going to like Robot-Master claiming to run them at all! Before the broadcast can go ahead, Autobots - Optimus, Bumblebee, Skids and Tracks - turn up to take Megatron. The assembled US military, however, take them on. That attack is interrupted when Decepticons - Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak and Buzzsaw - arrive and recharge Megatron, driving off Autobot and human alike. Almost all the humans, that is: Laserbeak captures Finkelberg that Megatron might exact revenge. However, 'Robot-Master' convinces the Decepticons that he can be useful to them by helping sell that the Autobots are as dangerous as the Decepticons. Megatron agrees, and Finkelberg lives as a Decepticon captive...for now.
Brill!: Megatron shows Donny that he's only just making it onto the 'live' rather than 'be killed' list - and striking a match on Megatron's foot isn't helping. In spite of the little man's overconfidence, he picks him up by his cape, stubs the cigarette out with his massive finger, and tells him if he keeps that up, smoking could indeed be hazardous to his health.
Wicked dialogue: Soundwave tells Megatron that Finkelberg's reasons for letting him live are sound, and Megatron protests, 'But I detest every molecule in that fleshling's form!' as if he's giving a reasonable counter-argument. Let's face it, by Megatron's standards, he probably is.
Naff dialogue: 'Metal shavings in a turbo wind', Megs? What?
Miserable glitches: Not a glitch as such, I suppose, but: Do shopkeepers regularly just sell any old tape player they find outside their shop? And if they do, don't they usually check to see if it works? Assuming they did both of those things, then, wouldn't they then know how much they're selling it for?
Megatron's Decepticon badge is grey when the Triple-I gang approach him. In fact, in this scene Finkelberg's Robot-Master emblem isn't coloured in either. Is this no-logo-colour day? That's just silly!
So, is that the military telling Triple-I they're trespassing? You'd think they'd have been filled in. Or do they mean the Autobots? They're not trespassing; they haven't gone into the mine yet.
The Autobots' point about coming in peace would have gone over a lot better if they hadn't each been carrying big guns around, too.
Soundwave has a bright pink hand when he transforms to meet the still-frozen Megatron. That'd be a fairly inconsequential print flub, but that the same hand is obviously and deliberately coloured pink in successive panels. Just grab something off the stove too quickly, did we, Sounds?
The shopkeeper at the electrical shop is wearing a completely different outfit when he's watching the broadcast to when he's 'selling' Soundwave, yet we know it's the same day.
Back-up strip: Rocket Raccoon.
Notes: This story was reprinted in Transformers - Cybertron Redux (Titan, 2003).
Comments: Interesting. While Forsythe was actively rubbishing Blackrock's suggestion about good robots, Barnett just seems to plain old not believe him, and can't understand why this civilian fool is spreading crap. That civilian fool, by the way, isn't such a bad character as he's made out to be. The 'Robot-Master' idea is often harshly criticised by Transformers fans, casual readers, incidental aficianados, people in the street, etc, etc... The actual character, though, is written rather well. Yes, the whole plot is ludicrous, and I can't decide whether various characters commenting on this in the story is a bad justification or a post-modern wink. But while I realise this may mark me in Transfandom as the equivalent of 'Hey, Wheelie was my favourite character in The Movie!' the reason Donny Finkelberg is a shallow, self-interested coward is because that's who he is. He's not evil or even amoral, but his primary interest is himself, and he'd like to get the most by doing the least (hey, did you know that the comic is set in Western Civilisation in 1986?). As time goes on, we'll see that there's more to him than that, but that's character development for you. There's also the advantage for him that he's slightly laughable to us as well as to the world he lives in, giving him snatches of comic relief. Although the recurring 'smoking' gag is pushing to go from 'cute theme' to 'Hey, kids! Smoking is BAD FOR YOU!! GET IT?'
That's about all there is to say, because again there's not a lot of Transformer-centric action this issue. But wow, Bumblebee with his telescopic vision turned on just looks funky.